Right Talker Savage on Britain Ban: ‘When Has This Witch Listened to My Program’

SFGate...

San Francisco-based conservative talk show host Michael Savage -- whose sharp-tongued right-wing commentary has earned him headlines across the U.S. -- is making news again: He's been banned in Britain.

Savage told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview this morning that he was shocked to learn the news that he was included in the British government's first-ever list of nearly two dozen people from across the globe who are banned from entering the nation for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred.

"When I woke up and saw this this morning ... my first thought was, damn, there goes the summer trip where I planned to have my dental work done," the "Savage Nation" host joked. "My second thought was, darn ... there goes my visit to the restaurants of England for their great cuisine."

But, he added, the issue is no laughing matter -- and represents a serious threat to free speech.

"Today it's me. Tomorrow it's someone else," he said. "My first reaction is, this can't be happening ... that the land of the Magna Carta has now become the land of the mini-Carta."

The list of high-profile banned visitors was released by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who published 16 of the 22 names of people banned from the country since October...

From Hot Air...(after Allahpundit tells us the obligatory disclaimer: he "never listens")

Also on the list: Jihadists, neo-Nazis, that child-killing savage from Hezbollah for whom Al Jazeera threw a birthday party last year, and, oh yeah, Fred Phelps.

The LA Times is neutral...

Reporting from London -- Britain has just two words for controversial California radio talk-show host Michael Savage:

Keep out.

NPR asks it's listeners if the ban is justified...they can't quite decide.

Is his banning about speech that fosters hatred, as the U.K. has decided, or free speech?

The "Moderate" Voice calls Savage names and his commenters think that Michelle Malkin should be on the list...

...talk radio loves controversy and its emotional drugs to talk show radio audiences so the news is likely to give the bombastic Savage a boost.

Newsmax give us a full-throated defense of free speech...

That Britain does not have a First Amendment is clearly evident in its banning of outspoken American talk radio host Michael Savage from entering the country.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has published the names of 16 people who have been banned by the government since October for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred.

In banning Savage, Britain has lumped him together with the likes of Stephen "Don" Black, founder of a Florida-based white supremacist Web site; anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, who has picketed the funerals of AIDS victims; Hamas lawmaker Yunis Al-Astal; Egyptian cleric Safwat Hijazi; and Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, two Russian gang leaders who were imprisoned for their role in the racially motivated killings of 19 people.

The Right Perspective notes a pattern...

Since 2000, the British government has become eerily totalitarian against speech and thought it does not approve. “Hate Crime Raids” against those deemed politically-incorrect occur on a regular basis. The UK government’s “Operation Napkin” has police eating in restaurants, listening in on fellow diners for “hate speech.” In 2006, a man was arrested for calling a horse “gay” and a 14-year old girl was arrested for refusing to work with Asian students because they did not speak English.

Babalu notes...

As mentioned in the Polish Che T-shirt post, Europe views freedom of speech a tad differently from us.

Now Britain has banned outspoken friend of our cause (among the tiny few) Michael Savage from entry to their nation.

Something about his "extremist views." We're speaking here of a nation whose government ministers celebrate Cuban Stalinism almost en masse.

...and by golly, he's right. Among those celebrating 50 years of the Cuban revolution and Castro dictatorship are: Tony Benn, Harold Pinter, Ken Livingstone and dozens of other members of government, labor leaders and the glitterati of England. Take a look at them and marvel.